Trick to Chaeto

[Tuffloud1]

Is there a trick to getting only the Chaeto in a refugium to grow without letting other sludge and hair algae grow with it?

I'm getting hair algae growing on the walls of my refugium and other slime on my Chaeto. The Chaeto grows, but is intertwined with other stuff I don't want growing. I even get coralline growing on my Chaeto.

I don't understand how people do it when I see their lush bright green and clean Chaeto growing without anything else on it.

What's the trick?

 

[ReefWreak]

high circular flow to keep the chaeto ball rotating?

Short of that, you're going to get a lot of crap growing in there. D2Mini has some good videos on the rotating chaeto ball.

Honestly, I don't mind all of that crap growing in my refugium (back of biocube), since I just scrape the walls down before a water change, let it settle to the bottom, and siphon the chamber dry, removing all of the scraped down crap. And all of that crap growing and using nutrients in back is preventing them from growing up front, so I'll take it.

 

[Tuffloud1]

high circular flow to keep the chaeto ball rotating?

Short of that, you're going to get a lot of crap growing in there. D2Mini has some good videos on the rotating chaeto ball.

Honestly, I don't mind all of that crap growing in my refugium (back of biocube), since I just scrape the walls down before a water change, let it settle to the bottom, and siphon the chamber dry, removing all of the scraped down crap. And all of that crap growing and using nutrients in back is preventing them from growing up front, so I'll take it.

I hear ya as far as the crap growing there is better than up top.

What I don't understand though is how people have huge amounts of Chaeto not rotating or rolling and is lush, green without all the crap.

The point of the Chaeto is for it to outcompete all the "other" crap. So when I have a big ball of Chaeto with said crap growing all over it and the walls, the Chaeto isn't outcompeting it. The crap seems to be outcompeting the Chaeto.

I see many not "tumbling" their Chaeto, just a gigantic mass sitting in their sump.

 

[ReefWreak]

I'm curious then what people say. I rarely see or hear about a "nice clean" chaeto setup that doesn't have very high flow. Even my friend who has an ARID reactor (vertical highish flow chamber just to grow chaeto) still complains about the cyano and other stuff growing in there. That includes when he doses iron/magnesium solution as recommended by the ARID manufacturer.

It could also be tank/nutrient/algae maturity? Newer or more often disturbed tanks have cyano and other minor issues where older and less disturbed tanks have just chaeto? Not sure, hopefully someone has a better answer.

 

[Tuffloud1]

I think it may be my lighting.

I'm using 2 CFL bulbs right now that are on 24/7.

I ordered a "Reef Radiance" LED light that is supposed to work great for growing macro.

In the reviews, people report that slime and other "crap" doesn't grow as well but the Chaeto takes off with this bulb.

Hopefully that will be the case.

 

[ReefWreak]

Does it output more blue light? That may help. I was using a generic yellow outdoor LED floodlight off of ebay.

Let us know how it goes!

 

[Michael Hoaster]

If you want your chaeto and refugium to be more pristine, treat it more like a display. Keep removing the crap, until the chaeto fully takes over. It may be that your refugium is collecting detritus, which is great crap-fuel. Ideally, detritus would collect in an unlit chamber of your sump. Since chaeto is a shallow water species, it does best under bright, daylight color lighting.

Great thread btw! I'm sure there a lot of folks very interested to follow your progress, so keep us informed.

 

[Tuffloud1]

Here is the Reef Radiance bulb.

It is 12 watts total with 12 LED's.

 

[Tuffloud1]

Lit

 

[Tuffloud1]

Definitely a different look to the light that comes out compared to CFL white bulbs.

 

[Tuffloud1]

Another one.

 

[Tuffloud1]

What is the best light schedule for Chaeto? Some say you can run 24/7, others say it needs a break so it can "rest".

 

[mokrytzki]

I have read, 16 hours on a reverse schedule. Reversing from display helps reduce Ph swings. Please keep us informed on the progress of the new bulb as I'm currently struggling with refugium lighting. How about a link to that bulb? Thanks

Sent from my SM-G900W8 using Tapatalk

 

[enchelycore808]

Could it be over expectations to how much nutrients chaeto will pull from the water? If your getting a lot of pest algae growth, sometimes it's because the amount of chaeto you have isn't able to use up the nutrients fast enough before pest algae utilizes it.